Lessons taught on the Ides of June
by Scarlet Secret
Summary: Nine years after the war the surviving members of the Order bury Minerva McGonagall. As Harry wonders the grounds he begins to see apparitions of Hogwarts' long and illustrious past, and he learns the last lesson the castle has to teach him.
1. Chapter 1

1.

Nine years after the demise of Lord Voldemort the surviving members of the Order of the Phoenix, and indeed the rest of the Wizarding world were suffering through the coldest, wettest summer on record. And it was only June.

On the ides of the month, which happened to be the darkest, greyest day of the summer so far they interred Minerva McGonagall in the grand and imposing, archaic Scottish cemetery that was not far from Hogwarts. She had died rather suddenly, although not suspiciously and, as everybody had assumed she was indestructible, there had been no discussion about what she wanted after her death. As a result upon making the arrangements for the funeral they had discovered themselves at a loss. Eventually the cemetery had been decided upon when it had been discovered that the family nobody knew she'd had were also buried there.

Following the service, which to Harry's mind hadn't quite met the standards that the Hogwarts Headmistress deserved, the boy-who-lived found himself wondering over to the Hogwarts grounds not for the first time since the massive battle which had taken place there. He found himself simply wondering around realising that all the people he could visit had long since gone. Dumbledore's repaired white tomb shone in the distance, reminding every student there of the sacrifices made by the school and the brave and unyielding staff. Dumbledore, Snape, Lupin, Hagrid and now McGonagall. Every confidant he had ever had at the school was gone (although he still wouldn't really consider Snape a confidant). Four dead and Hagrid had permanently relocated to France not long after the war, thankfully taking most of his more terrifying creatures with him. Harry still saw him often but it was never quite the same.

The other teachers had not fared quite so well in the battle or in the following years. Professor Sinistra had died in the battle and it had taken a while for them to recover her body from the dark depths of the lake. Madam Hooch had shattered the bones in the left side of her body when she tackled a Death Eater out of a window. Madame Pomfrey had repaired the bones but they were so badly damaged that even her Quidditch _teaching_ career was over. Deprived of what she loved most the flying instructor had sought refuge in the bottle and died just over a year later. The medi-witch herself had remained at the school and although she was still there Harry had never really warmed to her, plus she had inexplicably become more irascible after Rita Skeeter had died nearly eight year ago now. That had made absolutely no sense to anybody.

Flitwick had retired and was presumably with what family he had left and Harry knew for a fact Sprout was on her last legs and Neville was even now being prepared to take over. Even Trelawney had gone, in an explosive incident that had even reached the rumour mill in the Auror office. At the end of McGonagall's first full year as Headmistress an almighty row had broken out between the two witches, Trelawney accusing the other woman of undermining her and trying to get her out of the school in the same way Umbridge had. McGonagall had been thoroughly insulted to be compared to such a woman. The resulting argument, which had finished in a spectacular duel, ended with the Diviner losing the sight in her left eye and McGonagall never being able to walk properly without a stick. Trelawney had left the same night and had never been seen again by anybody.

Occasionally Harry felt the need to look for her, she had after all fought for Hogwarts along side all the rest, but he didn't like the thought of what he would find and his superior wouldn't allow him. He reasoned with himself that he had never liked her but thought himself enormously petty; he had after all disliked a great deal of school. The days he had spent in the school had been trying but he remembered them with a great deal of fondness.

He still wondered the grounds when he heard a noise above him that was strangely familiar and yet not. He looked up and saw a broomstick flying overhead. He knew there were no students left at Hogwarts, they had all been sent home early this year as a mark of respect for the late headmistress (Harry secretly thought that this was ridiculous, McGonagall would have been much happier for the students to complete the year). _So who was flying the broom?_


	2. Chapter 2

2.

It shot off into the woods before he had a chance to see who was aboard it and he considered following it; it was now after all, his job to catch troublemakers. Harry was distracted though by voices coming from his right, near to the remains of Hagrid's hut. One was soft, wise and feminine the other deep, smooth and masculine.

"You intend to leave me?"

"Not you. I will never truly leave you. Alas I have no choice."

"Of course you have a choice you thoroughly irritating man!"

"I take it you shall miss me then?"

Harry had never heard these voices before, he knew to move with caution, although they both sounded sorrowful there was no reason to suspect they were unarmed. He peeked around the hut and saw a man and woman…he had the sneaking feeling that he had SEEN them somewhere before if not heard them.

It took him a moment to notice that they were not entirely there. Not quite transparent enough to be ghosts but yet not solid enough to be real, if Harry hadn't known any better he would have thought them pensieve memories, they had the same consistency. And the man looked so very familiar.

The woman however he didn't fully recognise. She was very tall, with long, thick ebony hair, a pale complexion and high cheekbones; she had the look of aristocracy and Harry felt he should bow. Then she spoke.

"I shall not miss you, my dear Salazar, because I will come with you."

_Salazar?_

"No! Hogwarts needs you. It needs you mind. Without you Godric's foolishness and Helga's softness will not be enough to make the school great."

"So I have to stay? Even though I lo-"

"Don't say it Rowena. It'll be easier of we don't say it."

The woman looked as though she were about to cry, nevertheless she nodded and Harry didn't think he had ever seen somebody do this action with such sadness. Salazar Slytherin reached out to wipe away the tears, pulling Rowena Ravenclaw towards him and kissing her.

Harry couldn't watch any longer and pulled his head back behind the hut. He couldn't comprehend what he had seen. Had he imagined it? He was sure he had seen the final farewell between two of the founders before Slytherin left the school for good, but how could he see an event that happened a thousand years ago? He put his head back round the corner but they were gone; he had not heard any movement and a quick glance in the direction they must have gone told him that nobody had travelled that way – they had simply vanished into thin air. Which seemed to be where they came from in the first place. It was as though a pensieve memory had been left on the grounds for Harry to see in his walk. Always curious he wondered what else he could see. Then he remembered the broomstick. He could not quite put his finger on why he had not immediately recognised the sound and began to walk to the forest in hopes of finding the rider.


	3. Chapter 3

3.

He walked for a minute through the trees and brambles that had overgrown so much since Hagrid's departure that it was somewhat difficult to get into the forest. Then he heard murmuring again. This time the voice was very familiar. He peered through the overgrown hedge and had to stop himself from shouting to the image.

Albus Dumbledore, or rather what appeared to be a teenage Dumbledore was sat on a tree stump, speaking to another boy in what Harry recognised as his explanation voice.

"You see Aberforth it isn't right what you think about goats?"

"Why not?"

The teenage Dumbledore seemed to falter.

"It just…isn't."

Harry stifled a chuckle not fully accepting that the apparitions probably couldn't see him anyway. He was now absolutely certain that whatever the images were they couldn't be ghosts, Aberforth Dumbledore was still alive and, Harry had an inkling, probably stalking poor Madam Rosmerta at that very moment.

"Albus…?"

"Yes?" This was said with a great deal of trepidation and Harry had images of the elder brother having to answer many awkward questions in his time.

"If goats are wrong, why are girls right?"

For a few moments the teenage Dumbledore was stunned and the grown-up Harry was in tears from laughing at the expression on his face. Eventually the previous Headmaster rallied.

"We need to have a serious talk, has father explained the birds and the bees…"

In the blinking of an eye the brothers were gone and Harry was deeply disappointed, he would have quite enjoyed seeing Dumbledore awkwardly explain girls to his younger brother. Although he was an Auror and every professional bone in his body was telling him that he should investigate this phenomenon with the proper proceedings his curiosity, as ever, beat him.

He continued on through the forest, still pursuing the broomstick rider. After getting himself caught on many brambles and still determinably walking on he came to a clearing he had never seen before, but then, he mused, it wasn't as though he had ever explored the forest in detail.

A soaring sound came from above him and the broomstick he had seen before came clearly into view appearing to be a yellow blur, closely followed by an equally speedy red blur. Both of them hurtling towards the ground at a dangerous pace, in what looked to Harry an intentional move. Sure enough they both landed perfectly and the red blur pounced on the yellow blur.

Utterly confused he got closer only to be shocked when the red blur came flying in his direction, having being pushed away by the other one, and went straight through him as though he were the ghost. He looked down on the floor and gasped.

Looking straight through him was a teenage Minerva McGonagall, bedecked in Gryffindor Quidditch robes and complete with square rimmed spectacles. She looked to be about fifteen and Harry had a feeling that her fanaticism to Quidditch went further back than even this.

_Well, _thought Harry. _It does explain a lot._

The woman in question looked furious and ran back at her companion who, he realised with some sadness was Madam Hooch. She probably wasn't professional yet but her passion for Quidditch must have become apparent young. She was in yellow robes, the Hufflepuff colours.

"You cheated Hooch!"

Rage.

"I have no idea what you mean."

Smugness. Not a good combination Harry thought.

"You deliberately hit that bludger at me, just so I wouldn't get that goal!"

"Have you not read the rules of Quidditch McGonagall? That's my job."

McGonagall was getting frighteningly close to Hooch and Harry had to laugh again. This was the woman who had told him not to lose his temper and who had been dignified to the end. At this moment in time she was flushed, furious, had leaves on her robes and her hair was a state. Hooch on the other hand, to Harry's great amusement, seemed not to change a great deal in the years between her own schooling and then her career. Her hair was short and spiky, her eyes were golden and she seemed entirely comfortable in Quidditch robes.

Harry gazed with sad fondness at the two people who had made his Quidditch playing possibly.

"Thank you." He muttered. But they didn't hear him.

He had expected them to vanish quite soon but he changed his mind when McGonagall reached for her wand. Before she could act though another voice rang out.

"_Immobulus!"_

The woman who was destined to become Headmistress froze immediately and fell rigidly to the ground. Hooch looked for a moment and then burst out laughing. Harry spun round at the same time in search of who had cast the spell.

Another girl was climbing out of the brambles, the same age as the other two, except cleaner and more serene looking. Masses of curly blonde hair was piled on top of her head and Harry thought this must be somebody he didn't know until she got closer. Although her tone of voice was completely different it still gave her away, he had only ever heard her speak in a brusque tone once or twice but he remembered.

"Minerva, someday I'll stop you moving and I swear you won't walk again! Xiomara, apologise, we're all friends after all."

Harry decided that the teenage Sybill Trelawney was stranger than the older version. The older one he could deal with, she was a lunatic who also happened to be a bit of a fraud; this girl was sensible, commanding and bore an inexplicable resemblance to Hermione.

"Well!"

"I'm sorry Minerva. It was all meant in the spirit of the game and…" she looked at Sybill for help but the blonde girl raised her eyebrows expectantly. "I'm sure you would have got the goal. Your team won anyway so I don't see why you should be so sodding miserable!"

The indignation in her voice made him miss her all the more suddenly, having a teacher around the school who, at least when it didn't come to Quidditch, was basically an overgrown Weasley twin in disguise had been enormously entertaining.

"Is that good enough?"

Trelawney nodded her head approvingly and Harry snickered. If this version of the woman had taught Hermione would she have hated Divination so much?

"Erm…Sybill? Are you going to let Minerva up?"

Trelawney observed her future nemesis for a moment and Harry felt a twinge of sadness at how much they would grow to hate each other.

"Not quite."

She sat herself delicately on the grass next to Minerva and tried to make the other woman comfortable without releasing her. Hooch laughed maniacally and clumsily plonked herself down by them too and began playing with the grass.

"You know what she'll do. You're scared aren't you?"

Harry heard her following words but noticed she seemed to be looking at McGonagall with a very glazed expression.

"Petrified Mara, absolutely petrified."

And the three of them and two brooms were gone.


	4. Chapter 4

4.

Harry could have quite happily watched them for longer. Being innocent and being alive seemed like things that the former Professors were not permitted to do in their later years and he liked to see people happy. Although the gleam in Trelawney's eye when she had admitted her fear of McGonagall hadn't escaped him. He didn't know what that now suggested to him about her disappearance but he resigned not to think about it too much. His job or not, there was nothing he could do about it now and he wanted to see more of these images.

Haplessly he began to exit the forest, thinking it still probably wasn't a particularly safe place to be. When he finally found open ground again he was nearer to the lake than before and he could see a translucent person huddled beneath a tree. As he got closer he saw her legs were folded up underneath her and she was reading a book, shielded from view of the castle by the trunk of the enormous tree.

He saw her features but still did not recognise her. Her face was long and pale, with deep red hair that came to her shoulders and Harry almost ran to her. He knew who had hair like that. But it wasn't her - the eyes were the wrong colour and he dearly hoped his mother had never let her robes fall open that much in what he assumed was an attempt to cool down.

Then she sneezed.

For a moment it took him aback but during that uncontrolled moment her hair had flashed from red to green and had elongated by at least six inches, her mouth had got a bit bigger and her fingernails turned orange.

Tonks. And she looked to be all of fourteen years old and not particularly happy with her new transformation.

"Stupid hair."

Out of nowhere another figure appeared and plonked himself unceremoniously down next to her. His flaming hair immediately identified him as a Weasley and stockier build meant this was probably Charlie.

"Nice colour though."

"Shut up."

"You gonna go see McGonagall and get this sorted out?"

"No. She hates me. She thinks I'm clumsy."

The teenage Charlie raised his bushy eyebrows and Tonks leapt upon him in outrage. Easily he lifted her off the ground and began charging away from the tree with her protesting loudly but laughing all the way. Harry followed them, marvelling at how quickly the young man ran and how light she must be.

"Charlie put me down!"

"As you wish."

Harry had to stifle his own laughter and the urge to rescue Tonks when Charlie threw her with great force into the lake, her realising where her destination was a moment too late. The enormous splash that followed was very odd, Harry heard the sound but the lake itself was completely undisturbed, not a ripple crossed the surface where Tonks had hit it decades before.

Charlie dived into the water next to her, his copper head disappearing beneath the black water, but neither of them surfaced. They were gone.

Harry didn't have need to search for his next apparition as it happened on a secluded bank that linked the lake and the forest. Initially he could only see two blurs but as he got closer he distinguished two girls about eighteen years old, they were definitely seventh years by the swagger they possessed.

Before he could react to cover his eyes they had both thrown off their robes and he was glad to see they were dressed underneath. Sort of. Whoever they were they must have been enjoying the summer sun as they were both in bikinis which left little to the imagination. Chatting and smiling the two lay themselves on sun-beds they had conjured and briefly Harry wished that his time at Hogwarts had been relaxing enough for him to just stop and enjoy the sun once in a while.

And they were so beautiful he was enraptured, giving no thought to trying to identify them. One was blonde and already quite tanned with sparking blue eyes, the most marvellously curvy figure he had ever seen and a sling across her right arm. The other was dark and pale, with ridiculously long legs and clever smirking lips. Harry loved Ginny dearly but he was not above admitting that he sometimes looked at other women, he was doing no harm but here he felt like he was spying. Prying into personal lives like a…

Journalist.

_Oh dear sweet Merlin!_

It was the eyes that gave her away when Harry ran to them and stopped so he was looking down on the two young women. Sparkling blue with a hint of inquisitiveness, the eyes that used to hide behind the gem-encrusted glasses of Rita Skeeter. She moved slightly on her bed and seemed to aggravate her already hurt arm.

"Ow!"

Her companion merely laughed good-naturedly.

"It's not fucking funny you know. Madam Pomfrey says if I break any more bones she's going to refuse to treat me."

"Maybe you should stop flying like a bloody lunatic. The world won't end just because one Quidditch game goes by in which you don't get injured."

"It's not my fault. I must have brittle bones, they shouldn't break this easily."

"Look on the bright side. At least you have your own bed in the Hospital Wing."

"I beg your pardon."

"Well you're there so often I assumed you'd claimed one for good."

"Sod off Bella."

_What? THEY were friends! She HAD a friend once?_

The idea that two such repulsive women could also have once been so beautiful was new on Harry and he sat down on the floor for fear he would topple over if he didn't. They both smiled and laughed and he was touched by how innocent they sounded, young and carefree.

Their youth struck him differently to seeing others, even his teachers, because he had simply never considered that either of them had had lives aside from what he knew of them. A self-serving hack and sadistic murderess. But looking at them here Rita had no airs of pretence and Bellatrix was neither hollow nor haggard and she had no tattoo. He found his hatred for them both seep away a little and almost felt sympathetic that neither of them had been properly mourned. The Malfoy's had re-claimed Bellatrix's body to bury and Rita's funeral, to the best of his knowledge, went more or less unattended.

Harry was shocked when he realised he was happy that they had been happy. Glad that they'd had each other. They'd had somebody to love and to love them once.

"By the way Rit, what's all this I hear about Alice?"

The eighteen-year-old Rita Skeeter got a wicked gleam in her eye that Harry recognised all too well, although for the first time ever, he was glad to see it.

"She got caught with Frank Longbottom in the Astronomy Tower."

"Doing what, dare I ask?"

"Well they weren't charting Neptune darling!"

They vanished without warning but not before Harry heard their joyful laughter sounding forth loud and clear as though they were both still alive and right next to him.


	5. Chapter 5

5.

He wondered away from the lake, heading back to the castle, only to stop dead in his tracks by the front entrance. Slowly he snuck up behind the figure and when it turned around he was face to face with a Snape that looked just a year or two younger than himself. Shocked he moved around Snape and saw the younger potion teacher's companion. He knew for a fact that he didn't recognise her, although admittedly he couldn't see her too well.

The second he had seen Snape the teacher had turned from him and proceeded to snog this woman's face off in a manner that Harry had always previously associated with Ron and Lav-Lav. He had to prevent himself from laughing but the silence that filled the air when he didn't made him feel like a pervert. So he felt justified in cheering for Snape, somehow heartened that the greasy git, who had been a hero in disguise had once had a girlfriend.

And a particularly sexy one at that. When they separated for their first air since Harry had seen them he saw her better. Tall with long, sleek black hair and dressed to the nines in expensive well-tailored robes. She oozed money and Harry somehow knew she was from one of the old pure-blood families. She even looked a bit like Bellatrix.

"You're going to leave me aren't you?"

The parallels struck Harry with such force that for a moment he was quite convinced that Rowena and Salazar had returned. But it was Snape's low voice that responded.

"I love you."

"But you love her more – don't worry I understand. You'll sacrifice everything to Dumbledore for that whore but you won't stand by me!"

She said all this with such sweetness that it took Harry some time to register the words she had spoken, meaning he was somewhat surprised when Snape shoved her away.

"Don't talk about her like that!"

"It's what she is Severus. I don't believe in the purity of blood, you know that, so you can't accuse me of hating her for that. She's a cheating whore, she's been stringing you along for years and letting James mope at the same time."

"She loves him."

"Of course she does darling. He's rich. _Everybody_ loves James!"

"You don't mean that."

"No I don't. I love you and you know it! But you love her too much to ever be happy with me and I can't stand to see you miserable."

"Go."

With the sorrow on his face that had never left it in all the time that Harry had known the potions master he turned his back on this woman and went back into the castle. She stood there seemingly in shell shock for several minutes and Harry felt positive that he had seen her in a picture from many years ago, at Sirius' house. Perhaps she had been a girlfriend. Whoever she was she faded away with tears streaming down her face and whispering 'Severus' and Harry was glad to see her go. She had, after all called his mother a whore.

Entering the castle himself he half expected to see Snape billowing across the entrance hall, but he was alone.


	6. Chapter 6

6.

Quite suddenly he heard the doors fly open behind him, spinning around he saw that they hadn't moved at all but another couple were coming towards him, younger than the last one. It was with a smile that he quickly recognised Sirius, about seventeen years old and more handsome than the photographs showed. His grief over Sirius had never fully gone away but it had become less powerful and now seeing him again didn't fill him with the pain it previously had, but rather pleasure at seeing his godfather happy. And with his arm slung around the shoulder of a girl with sparkling, amused blue eyes and long, golden curls he certainly seemed happy. When she pulled off her thick, winter cloak he was embarrassed to think that he only recognised Rosmerta by her curvaceous figure rather than her face. However he thought that Sirius might have had the same problem given where his hands were travelling.

"Sirius, what if somebody comes along?" She was smiling at him broadly and not making much effort to remove Sirius' hand from her blouse.

"Then you can teach them the trick with the Butterbeer bottle…" With a light growl he buried his head in her shoulder as she laughed.

She placed her hands either side of his face and brought him to her for a kiss, which even from his distance away Harry could see effecting Sirius. He laughed himself; he had a feeling Sirius was no novice at romance but by the look of Rosmerta's kiss he'd been unprepared for her.

Pulling away from his Godfather he saw Rosmerta was still grinning and Sirius grabbed her hand and shot down onto one knee.

"Marry me goddess!"

She laughed again and he grabbed her around the waist, hugging her to him and making it impossible for her to walk away.

"I'm serious Rosie, marry me."

Harry had never heard Sirius sound so committed on something.

"I love you and we'd be so happy together, come on Ros, you know you want to really."

She got to her knees with him and hugged him before holding him at arms length.

"Sirius, I love our relationship, we have fun-"

"And the best sex in the world."

"And the best sex in the world, yes, but we can't really base everything on that."

"I really do love you."

"I know you do. And I love you. But you only want to get married because James is."

"It's got nothing to do with James!"

She raised her eyebrows and stood up, still holding his hands and bringing him up with her.

"If you still want to marry me next year I'll say yes, how's that?"

He grinned again.

"So is that a yes?"

"It will be."

"So do you want the fabulous piece of jewellery I picked out for you?"

"Oh, I do love you! Gimme!"

He pulled a ring out of his pocket and kissed her thoroughly, slipping it onto her finger at the same time, whilst she walked them towards the stairs, where they vanished.


End file.
